Riddle me this, Batman!

Ok, I'm kinda stumped here. Almost embarrassed to even ask here but I am scratching my head. This is on my mostly stock 360 build going into the dart. It's stock except for a comp 265 deh cam, headers and a Holley vacuum secondary. 0.030 over. It's running good on the stand. HOWEVER...

When I shine the timing light to time it, the timing tape isn't lining up where I expect it to, on the timing mark. It's nicely lined up on the balancer TDC mark. I degreed the cam on install.

Distributor points at no 1 spark plug wire, at TDC, on compression stroke. It runs smoothly and with good throttle response. I've quadruple checked the distributor clocking, and verified TDC on compression stroke, no 1 cyl.

Shining timing light when running and I don't see the TDC mark and can't make out any numbers on the timing tape. It's almost like the tape is in the wrong place but I know it's not. The timing mark on the balancer jives with TDC on no 1. Open to suggestions here, hoping I'm just doing something obviously stupid.